Saturday, December 22, 2007

I've been complaining to friends and as many people as I can, about the cruelty of the Japanese whale hunts. Japan has been killing whales in the name of science (ya right!) and this year it will kill 1,000 whales including for the first time the humpback whales, but it has surprisingly announced that it will spare the humpbacks. From BBC:

Nobutaka Machimura said the humpback hunt would not go ahead - although the fleet will still hunt about 1,000 other whales in the area.

The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Tokyo, says Japan is now unlikely to chase the humpbacks for at least a year.

The move comes after pressure from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Japan is regularly condemned for its annual whaling missions.

But this year's Antarctic expedition was particularly controversial because, in addition to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, the fleet intended to kill up to 50 humpbacks.

It was the first time Japan had targeted the humpbacks since a moratorium was introduced in the mid-1960s - when the species had been hunted almost to extinction.

Now if only they stop hunting all types of whales. The killing of endangered intelligent whales is barbaric and inhumane and it must stop.

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Producer, Director, Cinematographer. Creator of hit show Singapore Haunted. Spurs fan, experienced astronomer and occasional ITK. I.Z. Reloaded covers news, pop culture, blogs, websites, gadgets, the fascinating and the weird from a Singapore perspective. The blog is a runner up in both the 2006 Weblog Awards (Best Asia Blog) and the 2004 Asia Blog Awards (Best Singapore Blog) and it is also the first Singapore blog to be syndicated by Newstex. Send him stories, invites, sponsorships at izreloaded[at]gmail[dot]com.